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When someone you love dies, you yearn to keep their memory alive for as many people you can and for as long as you can. I am continually amazed at how this continues to happen as we inch closer to the six year anniversary of Liz’s death.

Last night at our county fair, the biggest and best county fair in the state, it happened again. For the second year, the Alumni Cheer Team performed a stunting routine in memory of Liz. Fair Square Park was filled to capacity with people taking in the last few hours of the fair. The girls wore shirts with IN MEMORY OF LIZ WENCL emblazed on the back. Before they performed they talked about Liz and her love of cheerleading.

I’m so incredibly grateful to these girls. To think that some of them have been out of school for eight years now, and they still take the time to do something so special. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

I got to hear another story of Liz’s continued connection to her friends.

As we waited for the cheerleading exposition to begin we were sitting next to one of Liz’s closest high school friends. I had just learned that she was engaged and I congratulated her on her beautiful ring and wedding plans.

She said, “oh, I just have to tell you what happened.”

She went on to say that she had absolutely no idea a proposal was coming when her boyfriend asked her to go for a walk so he could show her this “really big deer” he had seen.

They began to walk and a monarch butterfly appeared and flitted around them. It was the first monarch she had seen all summer and it immediately brought Liz to her mind. A few minutes later, her boyfriend popped the question and presented her with a beautiful diamond ring.

She told me she knew that when the butterfly arrived, it was Liz’s way of letting her know she was present and aware of the happiness that had just taken place.

It made me smile to hear, and again I just shake my head because Liz’s friends really “get it.” A lone butterfly could have been completely ignored … instead it did exactly what it was intended to do.